


A Thousand Ways

by izreal



Series: Shambles [3]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Bad Puns, Blood, Dark Humor, Dead People, Gen, Mild Gore, Morally Ambiguous Character, Overthinking devil fruit abilites, not so mild gore, so many dead people
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-28
Updated: 2014-04-12
Packaged: 2017-12-13 05:14:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/820405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/izreal/pseuds/izreal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shambles #3. To skin a cat or die. Either applies in this case.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer—One Piece and all associated characters ect belongs to Eiichiro Oda not me I just enjoy reading/watching it. Spoken dialogue belongs to him if it seems very familiar.
> 
>  
> 
> As I come up with ways I will add them, I doubt I will reach 1000 but you never know. My mind is a scary place.
> 
> Warning: This is deserving of the M rating for nothing less than violence in pretty gory detail at times.
> 
> -also not Beta’d, still waiting to hear back from someone.
> 
> Why? Frankly if you start thinking about DF applications any of them are pretty scary if you have an imagination and have even a touch of morbidity in your mind. Example, Luffy could punch someone in the mouth or gut and then inflate his hand via gear thrid… and it’s not a pretty picture. Not that Luffy would likely do this—cuz he is you know Luffy. Now we take the DARK DOCTOR and think about how broken his powers could be when added with his innate medical knowledge and possibly genius intellect and things get really scary. 
> 
> I may include other DF users in an attempt to reach a thousand (read: if I get bored enough or particularly inspired). If you are interested in that or someone in particular, let me know and I will put my mind on it.
> 
> Originally this was going to be apart of And Other Insects…and decided the tone was not a good fit at all. In this we see the very dark parts of Law (and anyone else I include) that gave him his petty nasty reputation. Because cutting people apart and putting them back together can’t be the only reason Law is considered terrifying. The fact that he can reassemble people makes that power alarming, but not worthy of the pure abstract horror that is associated with Law.

* * *

**1) Give them a Hand…**

_Interesting._ Law thought watching the rival pirate captain freeze in place with a decidedly ill look on his rapidly paling face.

            It was the first time Law had seen the reaction in person though he knew _intimately_ what it felt like first hand. It was incredibly unpleasant and one he did everything in his power to avoid, though in this case it was _terribly_ amusing.

            _It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt…it if is not you it’s hilarious._ Law recalled a teacher from his distant childhood commenting. _How true._

            “ _How_?” The Staff Staff user croaked out barely conscious.

            Relaxing for the first time since the fight had begun Law sheathed his sword in a somewhat complicated action before resting it in the crook of his right arm. He then reached up to his left shoulder with his freed hand. Calmly he used the combination of his Op Op powers still active and a precise twist of his wrist to pop his shoulder back into its socket. If he had been a normal person, read hadn’t eaten a devil fruit that allowed him to control objects in space, this wouldn’t have been possible to do unassisted. Without the fruit, it wouldn’t have mattered that the ligaments in that same shoulder were already weakened from repeated dislocation and abuse when he had been still growing.

            _Thank you so very much Vergo._ Law thought with a sneer while flexing his left elbow and fingers experimentally to check for range of movement.

            The fight had been rather one-sided to the casual observer with the Staff Staff user having the advantage of experience over Law. That is, until Law had managed to lop off one of the man’s hands and lower arm. The other pirate had ignored the wound as it hadn’t even hurt and even gone so far to mock Law’s so called useless cutting ability. After all what use was there in being able to slice someone up without harming them?

            Trevor Herman had even gone the extra mile and called Law a softhearted fool that was more a doctor than a pirate.

            The joke was on him however, as he lost his footing and dropped to his knee’s before Law.

            _It would appear that even a submerged limb is enough to paralyze a user. And it works even when not connected to their body._ Law thought thinking of the hand he had shambled into the ocean only moments before in half desperation and half experimentation.

            Law was covered in bruises from the numerous staffs that he had been forced to contend with but gave no evidence that he was in pain from the assault. The throbbing in his right cheek hinted at a cracked zyomatic, it would likely be painful to chew for a while, but not as bad if he had gotten hit in the jaw proper. He had been thrashed much worse than this paltry beating in the past. He dismissed his room with a thought, feeling the chaotic energy dissipate and settle back into his body.

            He drew his nodachi with his right hand ignoring the twinge from his left arm now holding the sheath, and smoothly stabbed it through the downed mans chest, easily going through the mains sternum and muscle like it was butter. Law still marveled at how _easy_ it was to cut things even outside of his room’s, how bones slid against the metal of his blade with a nearly musical hum as they ground together. Trevor’s eyes blew wide in shock.

            Law took a step backward and with a single wrench pulled his blade from the corpse. The hum of bone on steel intensified sounding now like a laugh. He quickly twisted his wrist, flicking the blood off the tip of the blade splattering the deck with crimson splashes that resembled macabre flower blooms.

            “Law-sencho?” Penguin asked from Laws right.

            Law’s eyes flickered to his crew where they had already taken care of the rest of Trevor’s men.

            “Take him below and get him prepped.” Law ordered then as a near afterthought, “also get ice prepared.”

            With a prompt and somewhat shaky salute the man complied.

            “Y-yes Sencho!”

            Eyes back to the body Law felt a smirk settle on his lips.

            _It would be a terrible oversight to let this opportunity go to waste._ Law turned to see to any pressing injuries among his crew. _After all, never know when you will need a new liver._

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We know that complete paralysis happens at about knee height for sure and power loss as soon as anything is submerged for DF users. I think this and reactions to Seastone may vary from person to person like an allergic reaction. Think about it, knee height varies from person to person, so it’s likely a percentage of a body mass submerged rather than a set mass. We also know that Law’s powers don’t negate body parts affecting the rest of the body even in this case thanks to Punk Hazard.
> 
> If nothing else, this is another reason that Law’s power is quite broken. If he manages to hit a DF user and lope off something significant just once and submerge that body part, they are effectively screwed no matter how powerful they are.


	2. Chapter 2

* * *

**2) Malpractice**

            Law let the corrupt marine go on his merry way without so much as a threat. Around him the assembled Heart Pirates relaxed and began to chatter, albeit nervously. Closest to Law was Bepo holding Law’s nodachi. Law was aware of the large clawed paws minutely tightening on the dark swords sheath.

            “I don’t like him.” The bear commented his beetle black eyes locked on the fading figures in the distance.

            Law inclined his head slightly and then tipped it to better hear what Penguin and Shachi were discussing. He didn’t bother to pay attention to who was saying what as they were talking in an uncharacteristic subdued fashion, only the whisper of words were intelligible.

            “…we are lucky they only took most of our food and demanded medical treatment. They could have _obliterated_ us or taken us to Impel Down! But we are still stuck in the middle of nowhere!”

            “Hey we are still free because of Sencho’s awesome skills! A simple liver transplant he could have done in his sleep!”

            “One day we will be so strong that we will be able to fight off guys like that with a _look_. We will be kings among men! One day we’ll find that guy again and give him hell!”

            Law huffed out a breath watching the marine ship fade off into the horizon.

 

* * *

 

            It would be two weeks before they saw the ship again. In that time the Heart Pirates had to resort to eating seaweed and fish supplemented with what little dried goods they still had. The marine ship was not sailing when they located it, but instead hung up on a shoal near the tiny island they were stopping at for water.

            Law had led his crew to the ship with caution but with no surprise. Law was also the only person aside from Bepo that didn’t have to leave the ship briefly to relieve themselves of their lunches from first the smell then the sight that greeted them below the vessel’s deck.

            It was to put it simply, a _bloodbath._ The red ichors covered the once-white walls and floor in streaks and swaths; some shaped like smeared hands others from _something_ being drug through them. Worse than the blood were the half-eaten and mangled bodies stung at random intervals that were only identifiable as human from the remains of clothing. After all, in most of the cases faces were completely unrecognizable where they seemed to have been _chewed_ or ripped off. The bodies had been little better making identification even more difficult with red stained white bone peaking through areas of rent flesh that looked more like hamburger than muscle.

            Law calmly threaded his way through the gore unaffected by the carnage with Bepo following him like a shadow. Some of his more sturdy crewmembers managed to return to his side after they had gained their stomachs and managed to find their way to the bowls of the ship where their captain had ended up.

            “What do you think happened to them Law-sencho?” Shachi asked, he was still visibly shaken by the ship but admirably managed to stand his ground.

            Blinking slowly Law looked at his crewman blankly. He had been quieter than usual since the marines had effectively raided them and left them to starve in the middle of the ocean. His expression suddenly morphed and a razor-sharp smile, though it never reached his dead eyes. The flash of white teeth was so much like a wolf’s fangs that Shachi jerked back startled.

            “Rapid onset acute encephalitis.” Law said simply his teeth unnaturally bright in the darkness of the room.

            “Sencho?”

            Law turned his eyes to the room again and walked toward the desk. The top was splattered with blood and disorganized but the most intact object in the room. Methodically he broke into the drawers flipping through the papers, pulling out ones he deemed important and letting the rest drop into a pile at his side.

            Shachi startled when his captain began to speak again, his voice unnaturally loud in the stagnant silence of the dimly lit room.

            “Rabies,” Law began eyeing the paper he held with his eyes quickly darting over the words, “is one of the oldest known diseases to man. It affects humans, giants, even some fishman and mermaids. It is nearly always fatal and can even stay dormant in a host for years after the initial infection before it surfaces and attacks their body. The most notable symptoms include excessive salivation, frenzied behavior, possible paralysis, and hydrophobia. Highly contagious and voracious, transmitted through bites and also blood.”

            Shachi caught onto the implication. He swallowed, acutely aware of how his mouth tasted of cotton.

            “Er…that’s very interesting, so they had rabies? Did they have it when we had them on board Sencho?” He asked worried recalling the blood from surgery.

            The Heart Pirates were trained to be very careful of contamination in the operating room. But accidents happened.

            Law’s eyes left the papers for the first time since they had entered the room. In them was a viscous look of muted _glee_. The same look as a child that had discovered a brightly colored butterfly in the garden and upon having caught it in their hands was examining it. Watching it flutter and struggle in a cage of fingers and seeing the play of colors as the creature sat in its prison.

            That same expression one sported, just before pulling off the still fluttering wings.

            “Of course,” Law ignored the question, “contaminated _organs_ or tissue when transplanted in a living subject seem to work _just_ as well. How… _interesting_.”

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Overly Scientific Health Announcement: I am well aware this has been done in various crime shows and I believe there has been the occasional real life case. This is also a completely plausible outcome (with the possible exception of the entire crew getting killed from one infected victim, but lets assume worst case scenario). Rabies is nasty business and comes in multiple strains, the two main division being the violent version you see in books and TV. and the paralytic version which makes you, surprise, surprise paralyzed and lethargic. It first infects the site of introduction; usually a bite wound, then moves to the central nervous system causing encephalitis (brain inflammation), then the rest of the body where the infected organs come from. 
> 
> If you get bitten by a mammal like a stray dog or similar you should get checked out. As soon as the symptoms present, you are pretty much a dead. Good news is there is a treatment for the disease if you catch it early. Better news, you no longer have to get multiple shots into your stomach. There is even a really expensive preventative vaccine I believe vets have to get. Go medical science!
> 
> Hydrophobia—fear of water…which adds a whole new level of scary to this particular scenario. I was planning on Law giving someone a disease via his abilities…and then rabies-organs came to mind…and then I remembered the symptoms specifically hydrophobia. They are on ships…rabies on a ship—surrounded by water. Holy Hemlock that is just horrifying especially if you have the violent strain involved.
> 
> Merman and Fishman—can interbreed with humans and seem to have live birth. Also have mammaryglands for all appearances (Sanji’s epic nosebleed adventures proof of this)…therefore likely mammals or some sort of subclass of mammalia. Ergo they are likely susceptible to rabies. I am playing that the more “fishy” individuals have an immunity or tolerance to the virus.
> 
> Yes I play Law in a generally somewhat sympathetic light. That doesn’t mean that I don’t think he has issues. In fact, I think he has a lot of them. Also, he is all for the eye for an eye and do onto others rule. He admits to the latter word for word in Punk Hazard. OP world seems to be behind in some respects to the real world, Law may be literally the only person capable of performing successful transplants (we know blood donation exists but organs are a bit of jump since the likelihood of rejection is high even with a lot of drugs to combat it). Thus, the fact that rabies is transmittable through them could likely be still a theory in OP world…until now.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When you loose one, the whole picture is ruined forever...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For something so short...this took a long time to get around to posting.

**3) Puzzle Piece**

The first few times Law had used an operating room to slice into people it had been a breathtaking thrill that he though he would never find the match of, much less a superior. The feel of blood against his skin even with the thin veneer of rubber gloves barely a barrier against the body-warmed liquid. The slip and resistance when cutting flesh, rough rasp of red-stained bone, and crackling snap of cartilage, would always be achingly clear in his memories. Seasoning the impressions was the heady pleasure brought on by a complex problem, finding it, and fixing it. And above all tactile sensation and feeling was the certainty that _he_ was in control and the patient’s fate was _literally_ found within his hands. How with just a little slip of his knife, the difference between life and death could be decided for the patient on the table.

After eating the fruit on a whim and burning with anger he had first thought he had made a truly stupid sacrifice.

Until he had figured out how to use a _room_ and discovered by accident and intuition how his Op Op abilities functioned. And the result could only be described as sanguine _ecstasy_ that lit his blood afire and brought out actual emotion from his broken psyche.

It was one thing to be able to cut into a living human and see the individual parts working in harmony. He did it often and with relish. But it was like a keyhole view into _possibilities_ that would remain locked behind a door _._ The keyhole was additionally severely limited by the physical limitations of both doctor and patient. And that was, in a word, _frustrating_. To be forever reach for an end he could almost see, but never grasp.

But then came the fruit.

And with the fruit came the _room._ With a _room_ he could shatter a body and arrange it around his sphere while watching everything functioning at _once_ and in ways once inconceivable. And then, with a thought and twitch of his fingers, he could put it all back together again. In _any_ way he desired with _whatever or whoever_ he desired mixed in.

Need a new arm?

_No problem._ Just stick a different one on, it may not match, but it’s as good as new.

What did a heart look like from the inside while it was beating?

_No problem._ Just cut it in half and watch the valves open and close as it pumps.

A particularly _annoying_ enemy?

_No problem._ Disassemble them and jumble them together with this and that, they are no longer an issue.

For a doctor, a man of science, the possibilities for discovery and experimentation were _endless_. Only constrained by the imagination and creativity of the user of the Op Op fruit.

Of course, Trafalgar Law was not **_just_** a doctor.

He was _Captain_ Trafalgar Law, _pirate_.

And that mindset opened up the once locked door to a whole new continuum of _applications_.

After all, as often as Law saved a life, he took one as well.

           

* * *

 

 This first time he _purposefully_ killed using his newly acquired power; he had let his victim think they had gotten upper hand. Law had cut the marine’s leg off through his femur in three places before shambling it with numerous cut up objects that he had promptly tossed about in a mesmerizing jumble. The marine had managed, through his own skill and the rapid onset of Law’s exhaustion from using such a large room for so long, to reassemble his body in a timely fashion.

The room faded and Law watched as the Lieutenant charged. At that moment, he crushed his fingers against his palm, using his fingernails to roughly slice through the object in his hand. A spray of blood flew from his hand in a pulsating cascade. Instantly the marine stumbled his leg giving out, he let out a cry at the sudden and unexpected pain.

Breathing heavily from the effort of holding the room stable and the manipulation of the objects within, Law held his ground, watching as the marines agonized face slowly blanked and he dropped unconscious. Just visible through a tear in his white dress pants his leg, fully intact for all appearances, was rapidly darkening under the skin turning a dark red-violet. A clear sign of rapid internal bleeding, pooling together in a mass of blood at the sight of the rupture. In this case the middle of the marines thigh.

_Three minutes or thereabouts until death._ Law thought gaze flickering over his enemy assessing the damage with a critical and detached eye. _Make that closer to two, I believe the damage from that barrel hitting his chest did more damage than I thought, a punctured a lung perhaps. Hmm, I will have to see how much inertia I can impart into marked objects or take from them in my next experiment. A solution to bullets would be…most advantageous._

He snorted and tossed the object from his hand to rest in the dirt with its owner. It was nearly unrecognizable, especially covered in wet soil, but Law knew what it was, or rather what it had been. It was red, rubbery, and cylindrical though somewhat mangled. It had been roughly cut down the center from top to bottom, leaving the object in two ragged pieces.

_The femoral artery once severed, **fatal** , if not treated. Cause of death: massive internal hemorrhaging._ Law diagnosed wiping his bloody hand on the marine’s pristine white uniform leaving a blazing red smudge across the front in the rough shape of his fingers. _So, when outside a room, damage to a part causes damage to the part and the **whole**. Fascinating._

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was one of the first scenarios to come to mind when I started thinking of fatal applications of the Op Op fruit. Law can cut up things and they still affect the whole when they are alive—pain, cold, etc…so theoretically Law can destroy a vital piece and kill a victim from a distance if he snags it via shambles/scan or whatever. This means that Law purposefully leaves a good number of his cannon victims alive, albeit in a jumbled mess. However, that doesn’t mean he can’t off them later if he takes souvenirs and the really creepy thing is that with scan/shambles he can grab whatever the hell he wants. To me, it is the scenario I present in this short and the idea of souvenirs that gave Law his reputation for a crew murderer not the basic concept of just shambling people (not that that isn’t emotionally scarring).
> 
> I Googled how long it takes to bleed out from having your femoral artery cut and went with the first clear answer then rounded a bit (http:// answers. yahoo. com/ question/ index?qid =20080316225340AA2SKYv). It’s nice I can find most of the medically related information I need on the Internet…and at the same time somewhat alarming at how easy my obscure questions can be answered. The fact that I could find out how much silver is toxic to an average human and also a horse under two minutes (completely unrelated to fanfic) proves this. 
> 
> Title: Not as obvious of a pun, but refers to when you have a puzzle and you are missing a piece. It tends to screw up your day.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Doggy bag anyone?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer—One Piece and all associated characters ect belongs to Eiichiro Oda not me I just enjoy reading/watching it. Spoken dialogue belongs to him if it seems very familiar.

* * *

 

It took time for him to even _begin_ to feel out the limits of his powers, firstly because they seemed to be increasing in potency and precision with practice, secondly because he still had so many _ideas_ to try, and thirdly he still _occasionally_ caused things to blow up or similarly destructive and unintentional when he wasn’t paying attention. But the third reason was not important! It was a whole new world! Bright and brittle like broken glass in sunlight, sharp to the careless touch but full of so much glittering potential if one knew how to _look_. And he hadn’t even left the North Blue yet.

He had been forced to work on increasing his control and influence by practicing every single day until he could make rooms that were of significant size—only exhaustion forcing him to stop and rest. Significant, meaning he could trap a whole squad of marines inside, whereupon he promptly cut them into pieces, just as he had done to a grove of trees earlier in the week. Then using a new technique, had made said pieces fly around and collide into each other in a jumbled mess he had decided to name most appropriately, _shambles._

The incredibly amusing looks on their faces would be the first, but nowhere near the last, he would see. However, the first time would always stick in his memory as a turning point. A turning point that had been well worth the bone-deep exhaustion that resulted from using his abilities especially to excess.

It was after learning that letting a room dissipate that dismembered pieces remained dismembered but still “attached” to their owner, unless they were reassembled where they would fuse back into place unable to be manipulated, that Law decided on a new experiment. He merely waited for an opportunity to try it on something more _relevant_ than a fish—though that experiment had been fulfilling in its own right, the “possessed sashimi” had nearly made Penguin have a heart attack. And also provided a somewhat safe and _endlessly_ amusing way to haze new crewmembers.

The perfect opportunity came quicker than he anticipated when a group of bandits had decided his crew would make excellent slaves. At the time Law had earned a small but notable bounty of 35,500,000 berri from a combination of his exploits and some _slightly_ exaggerated rumors of his cruelty. Exaggerated in that some people just couldn’t take a joke. Like getting their head cut off and stuck to the backside of a horse. Face first.

Really, the drunken fool hadn’t understood that he was a jackass. Law had decided that a visual demonstration had been needed to make sure the point was understood. As for the stories of him killing marines and pirates alike with an almost singular amount of violence and leaving them sans of organs or blood, they were completely true. _Occasionally_ blown out of proportion to his amusement, also true.

Law had ordered his submarine docked at the port of the moderately-sized North Blue island of Triton, after getting their supplies he had declared it a day of rest and relaxation before the crew departed the next morning. Thus did he and the other seven members of the Heart Pirates find themselves unwinding in a local bar, drinking and flirting with the waitresses while they unwound from their most recent travels.

Law himself was settled out of the way in a corner facing the front of the room where he could easily see his crew and anyone who entered the room. Not coincidentally, no one would be able to come at him from behind in an attempt to collect on his bounty. Bepo sat next to him holding Law’s sword in one arm and a turkey leg in the other happily stripping the meat off the bone with his sharp teeth.

Carefully cupping his saucer of sake in his fingers Law took a slow sip of the warmed liquid, letting it fill his mouth with flavor before swallowing slowly. He wasn’t much a drinker and getting drunk held little interest for him as the lack of control was detestable. He did enjoy a good vintage however, when imbued with moderation.

Unlike the rowdy bunch that had just entered the bar.

They were not pirates, the tell tale signs of the sea did not mark them. Their clothes didn’t have the faded and slightly stiff quality that came from being exposed to excessive salt day after day. Nor the subtle sway to their gates from having to adapt to the waves of the ocean. His crew noticed too.

More drunk than not, they were on Law’s payroll for a _reason_. Law noted suddenly sharper looks in from the eyes of the Heart Pirates spread out across the bar. If Shachi and Penguin were flirting just a _bit_ less energetically, then the waitress’s didn’t notice or put it down to them getting drunker. If a little less booze was getting in mouths and on the floor, well, they were drunken pirates after all. And if the suddenly more alert eyes strayed to Law with the clear intent of _waiting_ behind them, well he was their captain it was to be expected.

Of course the new comers to the bar certainly didn’t notice any of this. They were an unruly bunch of burly men.

 _Scum._ Law thought with a sneer overtaking his features for a brief moment before he forced his expression to a more neutral half-smile. _Bandits and lowlifes, but there is something...else about them that is unsettlingly familiar._

The Heart Pirates instantly went from wary to ready for action at seeing their captain’s visible annoyance.

Law didn’t immediately react to the introduction of the new group. They had yet to do anything other than annoy him with their excessively nosily entrance and their rough manners and a feeling wasn’t quite enough to act upon.

When they tried to hold the bar up to sell off the patrons as slaves Law felt a flash of anger as he noticed the owner and staff were in on it also. They were too calm, their eyes filled with the lusty gleam of greed. He had known they were hiding _something_ but he had assumed that one or several were skimming funds or serving watered drinks.

“What’cha y’all going to do, ‘s surrender all nice and quiet-like and we won’t haves no trouble eh?” The leader rumbled roughly as his men pointed guns at the various drunken patrons.

 _Which explains why there were no locals here. They round up pirates and whatever blows in and then, while they are too drunk to see much less function, they package them up and send them off to auction while collecting a finders fee. How… **quant**. _ He thought feeling his lip curl slightly in disgust, turning his smile into smoothing more manic.

Several of the more sober patrons panicked and one got shot through his leg for his troubles. Law decided that was enough, standing he took his nodachi from Bepo in the same motion. At first, he went unnoticed by all in the bar but his men.

Law decided that he is perfectly all right with that. He enjoyed watching shock on other people. Especially when he is the cause of the emotion.

“ **Room**.” He spoke to the room at large while raising his free hand, tossing out a spiral of energy that captured most of the group and the bar staff.

“What the fuck?”

He now had their undivided attention.

“It’s that guy there! Hey get in yer seat you rat!” The man pointed a gun at him.

“I think not.” Law replied dryly before drawing his sword and cut through the men in one easy motion following with several more lighting-fast sweeps of his blade.

“What the?!”

“AHhhahhh!”

Law replaced his sword to its sheath setting it in his elbow before he snagged threads of energy with his fingers and _yanked_. The bar exploded into floating body parts and random bits and pieces of table, chair, and whatever else had gotten in the path of his cuts.

“ **Shambles.** ” He twisted his hands scrambling the threads and tying them into knots.

Standing the Heart Pirates took advantage of the confusion and quickly knocked off the rest of the group that had not been caught in the room. Bepo moved in a flash of orange and white intercepting one that was going for his captain with a clawed paw to the solar plexus. Law concentrated on the ones he had dismembered but still heard the distinct crack of the other mans ribs as they shattered under Bepo’s paw. He trusted his crew to take care of the rest and twisted his fingers to scramble body parts and cut objects.

Moments later Law let the room dissipate leaving a number of scrambled men in various states of horrifying contemporary art. The waitresses and barman were less scrambled, but had not been exempted from the carnage.

“Oh dear. My apologies.” He said smiling broadly looking at the latter, “Let me fix that for you, after all you were so kind to serve us today.”

“ **Room.** ” He said catching them again in his operating theater, “hold still, it won’t hurt a bit. Don’t worry, I’m a _doctor_.”

He again drew his sword, making a show of cutting them up again, then he held the blade point down in front of himself. He had been practicing with this new technique and now was a perfect time for it to be put to use.

“ **Scan.** ” He said clawing his fingers perpendicular to the sword grabbing at a _particular_ set of threads that he had set aside for this purpose.

A bare moment later he flicked his fingers putting the workers and owner back together to all appearances, letting them think that the named technique was responsible for their reassembling.

“There you are. Now, I believe we will take our leave. Bepo.” He said grabbing the bear-mans attention as he threaded his way through the damaged bar.

The rest of the Heart Pirates followed in his wake.

“And what can we call our rescuer?” A brave waitress asked with a truthful openness in her gaze, she was young, likely way too young to be working in a place like this.

She had been the one to serve Law and had done so competently and professionally, even if she had a light blush covering her cheeks the entire night. One covered her cheeks now, but her voice was admirably steady without a simper or giggle.

 _Another victim to the eldritch horror that is hormones._ Law thought mildly. _But one with promise._

“I am Captain of the Heart Pirates, Trafalgar Law.” He said with a broad _fake_ smile that made her face flush a deeper red.

He gave her a small somewhat mocking bow before he turned and lead his crew to his submarine, making a small detour at the post office to send a small box via the coo’s with a very detailed and plainly worded note.

 

* * *

 

 

“I still can’t believe you let them get away so easily Law- _sencho_. You must be in a good mood. Your drinks must have been better than ours. My ale tasted like pound water.”           

Law didn’t reply to his helmsman, instead he looked at Bepo.

“About how far away are we from port?”

His navigator, a pleasant surprise for Law especially after Paco took that bullet through the eye, that still gave him hope his friend was buried underneath everything Joker had done, sniffed then replied.

“A 34 hours and 13 minutes Law- _sencho_.”

Law nodded, considering the strain he was feeling that took the form of hooks in and under his skin, he was not surprised. He stood and picked up a box he had set on the side table the day before. He brought it to the table in the center of the room and opened it setting the lid aside.

His helmsman Ushimaru blinked and looked into the box before recoiling in shock his blue hat flying off and hitting the floor behind him.

“Are…those? What I _think_ they are?” He asked leaning forward slowly with a sick look on his face.

He had been on board long enough to get a decent idea of what he was seeing.

Law didn’t answer the mustached man strait away, reaching into the box. He picked up a reddish cube encased in a faint corona of just visible energy and casually cut it in half with a knife. The cube gushed open in his hands drenching them in red liquid. He then repeated the process with the other bits in the box, his hands overflowing onto the floor making a somewhat large puddle. Law hesitated on the last, he held it up to the light, the crimson liquid dripping down his arms and soaking into his sleeves. He twisted it watching the play of color on the surface and then crushed it in his fist, _slowly_.

“Law- _sencho_?” Ushimaru asked, “That’s blood…that means that those are…”

Clenching his fist in a quick spasm a stream of blood sprayed out between his fingers in a fine mist. Law dropped the still twitching, oozing, mangled cube into the box with the others. He placed the lid back on delicately, like it was a present holding a priceless glass vase. Laws fingers left red trails in their wake, a mockery of stripes on wrapping paper. He lifted the box and went over to the large furnace that heated the common room and by proxy the rest of the ship. He opened the door and tossed the box in watching as it caught fire and began to burn. He shut the door and sighed as he felt the last of the phantom hooks vanish letting the static in his veins return to its normal circulation.

It was much easier to breathe, as if he had also removed an elephant from his chest. He turned to his horrified helmsman as the smell of burning meat wafted through the room, joining the metallic odor of freshly spilled blood. Law flicked his fingers splattering viscous red in an arc of drops across the floor.

“Clean up this mess and get back to your station.” He ordered leaving the room.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I imagine that Law messed around with his powers to figure out his limits. And I also think there is some sort of a downside to cutting people up and taking away parts…at least at first. Obviously, Law can leave parts where they are and let them lie. Punk Hazard isn’t small, and in the anime he delivers 100 hearts (human and/or otherwise) to the marines with a creepy smile on his face. This implies that he isn’t limited by distance, Oda’s world kind of spits in the face of physics so its plausible that Law can do what he does without limits in that manner…but I play to a more realistic school. If Laws power takes energy from him each time he uses it there has to be a cost to taking away a souvenir such as a heart. Even if it is just discomfort on Law’s part. Can that range extend? Hell yeah, training any muscle causes an increase so why wouldn’t Law be able to start messing around and making it possible to go farther and farther without crippling discomfort.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fun and games.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer—One Piece and all associated characters ect belongs to Eiichiro Oda not me I just enjoy reading/watching it. Spoken dialogue belongs to him if it seems very familiar.

Sometimes, just sometimes, Law found himself more than just intrigued with his power. He found himself legitimately having _fun_ with it. Fun that didn’t involve scientific or medical experimentation. If he hadn’t grown up like he had and didn’t know that there were parts of his psyche twisted and even at times _broken_ , he would be more worried about how much fun he was having.

He twisted his fingers, casually sending the dismembered limbs once again around his Room. The macabre dance was silent but for the faint hum that Law could always just perceive at the edge of his hearing, the hum of the _Ope Ope no mi_.

Somehow, it didn’t matter that he was bleeding sluggishly from his temple or that his that he had severely bruised ribs that would need to be wrapped and treated tenderly for several weeks. It didn’t matter that there was a new rent in the hull of the submarine that would have to be fixed and checked over multiple times before they even _thought_ about submerging again.

He flicked a finger making a chunk of thy crash into a face, older than the last time he had saw it, followed by a hand in a ringing slap that sent blood out in a flower-shaped spray of mist. Law knew that the pirate was likely dead, if not, he would be dead like his companions soon enough.

 

* * *

 

 

_“Look at bosses pet. What’s wrong pet?” The ringleader mocked, his violet eyes piercing and cruel._

_Hands caught his own and turned them against their owner. As his Law’s own thin-fingered hand made contact with his cheek there was a sharp sound and he felt one of his fingers break. His face stung then burned as his nerves cried out in pain._

_And it was just beginning._

_“Aw…poor pet can’t stop hitting himself. Stop hitting yourself pet!”_

_“HAHAHAHHAhahaha!”_

_“Stop hitting yourself, stop hitting yourself!” Other voices joined in as a mocking course as the world spun around him._

_Soon they began to use their own fists and feet instead of just Law’s to wreak merry hell on his body._

_By the end of the beating, his knuckles were bloodied, broken, and numb and his arms strained from being wrenched about. He was unable to move as they visited their abuses on them and degraded him in most of the ways they could imagine._

_When they had their fill of torments, they left him in the pink-stained snow to lick his wounds._

_In the silence of the empty filthy snow-laden street covered in blood, mud, and piss, Law peeled himself off the ground in a jerky shamble of gawky limbs. Whispering in his ears, was the echoes of their mocking laughter that soon was drowned out by growls of a chained beast growing hungry in the darkness._

* * *

 

 

Half-remembered snatches of demented laughter, twisted into parody by the passage of years licked at the forefront of Law’s thoughts. Tasting blood Law’s lips drew back in a too-wide smile as he joined the memory laughter adding his own voice to the course. Twirling his fingers yet again, he watched the dead dance, until the memory of laughter faded into screams and only his voice remained, drowning out the agony with mirth.

“~ _Stop hitting yourself~_.” He hissed in a ghoulish half-sung jeer punctuated by the beat of colliding flesh. “ _Stop_. **_Hitting_**. _Yourself_.”

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a short one in all respects. But a disturbing look into Law’s personality, or at least the one I have been characterizing. If you had a sibling older than you than you are likely quite familiar with this game or if you have seen bullies on TV ect. 
> 
> It’s not a very fun game.
> 
> In case you were wondering. Blunt force trauma is the killer this time.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Have a heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer—One Piece and all associated characters ect belongs to Eiichiro Oda not me I just enjoy reading/watching it. Spoken dialogue belongs to him if it seems very familiar. I also don't own Indiana Jones, that is all Lucus and Disney.

**6) Kali Ma!**

Law rarely let his anger get the better of him. It led to bad things. However, this time, exhaustion and stress had made him crack. Energy unrestrained and body acting on its own he snarled, lashed out, and smashed his hand into the wall.

Painting he just stood there drained.

When he finally looked up he was vaguely aware that something was… _off._ It took him a whole minute to realize that his hand was not in pain and was, in fact, _through_ the wall. And it wasn’t in a crater or imprint but in a _perfectly square hole_.

Law blinked dumbly at it for a moment and pulled back his hand. When he did he knew the power of his devil fruit was still active as he could feel it arcing around his fingers in tiny eddies and tongues of humming energy. It was not a particular manipulation of that energy he had felt yet, whatever he had done on instinct was something he had not thought to try under his own thought and will. He bent down and looked into the hole and saw that the wall had been punctured and a perfect cube of wall was depressed and now caught on the piping behind where his hand had gone. Law ran his fingertip along the hole, it was clean, _precise_.

_Like it was cut with a scalpel._

Anger banked with the excitement of discovery and untouched potential, Law smiled.

* * *

 

“ ** _Mes_**!” Law struck with his clawed fingers, driving them into his adversary’s chest.

The pirate’s eyes were wide, his pupils blown, as he collapsed in shock. Twisting his fingers Law yanked a tread of energy, teleporting the heart to his hand.

 _Eighty-three._ He counted absently, adding to the number he had tallied before they had come aboard this ship. _Still not enough, I think._

He looked up at the still fighting Rajah Pirates.

_Ten, eleven…fourteen…eighteen, nineteen…ah plenty left._

“Harvest!” He yelled out to his crew.

To anyone else, the word was unfitting in the middle of battle.

The Heart Pirates knew better.

It was an order to keep the enemy _alive_ , in a reasonably intact single piece, but _restrained_. Alive so that Law could _acquire_ organs that were still functioning. A _very_ different order from _Reap_ , where, Law didn’t mind if they were dead first before he started looking for parts.

“ ** _Mes_**!” He caught this pirate from behind.

His heart was smaller than the first, but it beat quicker in his fingers. Law squeezed it in his hands making the already stunned pirate hit the decking with a pained cry and before passing out. He could have ended things with that squeeze, but he knew it would be more, _showman-like_ , to leave them beating. If he was going to follow through with his plan, he needed to make a _big_ splash to be taken seriously. He slipped both hearts into his pocket.

_Eighty-four._

_Eighty-five._

_Ninety-nine._

Only the captain was left now. The young man was barely a teenager; he had an arrogant air and insane fiery eyes. He was held between several of Law’s crewmen on his knees and despite his almost skeletal frame it took all four of Law’s crew to hold him down.

“You will burn! In the arms of the great god your body will be crushed! Your entrails scattered to the vultures and your skin flayed from your still living flesh! I will feed her your blood and feast upon your heathen heart!” He spat.

Law tilted his head, deceptively calm. He locked eyes with the younger captain for a long moment; the boy recoiled like he had been struck. A big fish suddenly recognizing that it was facing a hungry shark. Like a viper Law struck with a snarled _Mes_.

A second later he had the boy’s heart in his blood speckled fingers. Nails biting into the cardiovascular tissue, puncturing through the pericardium and into the coronary arteries he smiled.

“Your god will find themself wanting.”

_One hundred._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Temple of Doom was on TV…and holy crap I realized that the heart stealing hand sign…looked a lot like Mes does. And they essentially do the same thing, they steal someone’s heart and leaves the victim alive…ish. Spawning this horrible little encounter. I based the captain after the possessed prince in the movie and his crew is named Rajah like an Indian Ruler. Only, you know, insane. I very nearly put a quip about betraying Kali and said god being angry with him buuuuut that was a little too hokey for my tastes.
> 
> As for where all the hearts went, well he probably pawned off a number of them to crewmen, or teleported them out of the way…or rather safe keeping for later. That isn’t all that important, but keeping 17 hearts in his pockets is not feasible. Hearts are roughly apple-pomegranate/grapefruit sized so…yeah a lot of volume there.


End file.
